The last three days of our trip have been accompanying the Bishop to various places where he was leading confirmation services. The first two were in Kondoa Diocese (see the last post0 and the next day went to just one service in St Peter's church, Mtumba in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. The reason for this is that Bishop Given is a "missionary" from DCT - to the Kondoa Diocese. He has therefore a special relationship with them. The DCT sends helpers, prays for Kondoa Diocese, sends a little money to help the evangelists in Kondoa - not a full salary, but enough to help a bit. Each Kondoa deanery has a twin deanery in DCT.

It was a massive difference - they were rich enough to give the Bishop a goat as a thank you for coming and confirming the candidates. At Mtumba, the church was very big, made of concrete blocks instead of mud bricks. The parish is big - 4 congregations and a total of 2852 people. The first hour and a half seemed to be greeting and introducing people - several parishes were joining together for the 440-strong congregation. 400 were presetn. 65 candidates were confirmed! Because we were about 4 hours late, there was no time for prayer for healing at the end, which was disappointing. Basically we had been treated like royalty - given a rousing and warm welcome, introduced and allowed to say a few words, been given a gift of a kanga (wrap-around fabric like a sarong or lava lava.) and then had to sit through hours of confirmation service . It was helpful to think "This is not all about me, this is about the 65 confirmation candidates and celebrating their big day."

That evening, we returned to Bishop Given's Dodoma house and were given a meal at 10pm! This is a hazard of staying with people who are so hospitable! Both Bishop Given's mother and Lilian's mother were there this time and still there were enough beds for us 5 team members. Robert and Rachel Kereopa from Wellington joined in the confirmation services in DCT and helped us pray for the sick in those very big services. It was great to have the extra hands on deck for the prayer time. It was frustrating to only be able to pray for about 4 people each and then everything was over and we were given the equivalent of a Christmas dinner! They only eat rice at Christmas time as it is so expensive, but we have eaten it almost every day since we have been here.

On the final day there were two confirmation services in the DCT area. The last one was at Ihuma. 300 were present. Robert, Rachel, Ian and I sang a waiata of "Wairua Tapu", which was well-received.This church has 3006 people!

Now I am sitting in Perth airport, waiting the 7 hours between flights. We have travelled from Dodoma to Dar Es Salaam, from Dar to Johannesburg and then to Perth. Now it is Perth to home! Hurrah! There is nothing like one's own bed and I am looking forward to it!

Songolo is a large Parish with several churches and a total of 926 people, including children. The main church, which we visited, has a good roof. The ladies had decorated the church inside with bougainvillea flowers – but because they have no vases, the flowers are dead. There was also a frond from a dried maize flower. The kangas which had been cut up on the walls were caught up Inn the middle, giving a pleasing effect of butterfly wings.

We were only half an hour late leaving - this must be a record! So we started the confirmation service at 10.30am. 4 ½ hours afterwards, we finished and lunch arrived at 3pm.

The reason the service was so long, was partly quite a few songs by various groups. We videoed them. Also, there were about 26 confirmation candidates. Then we started praying for the sick. The first one up was a woman with advanced breast cancer… what a starter! I prayed my best prayers with no visible result, and the pastor’s wife kept going while I prayed for others, because the woman had a strong sense of God’s presence and power upon her. Unfortunately, it was only when everything had finished that I smelled a foul spirit around her and I asked the pastor’s wife to pass on this information to her priest (because she came from another church.) The feeling of failure there was quickly wiped away by having two or three other people in quick succession who became completely free of pain when I prayed.

And so to Mondo village. This was a different kettle of fish - a small congregation of about 12, with 3 confirmation candidates. Andrew preached on Luke 9 and after presenting them with some Swahili bibles, we prayed for the sick. The first one up was a woman who was heavily demonized and was hard to get free. Later, dinner was served and we travelled home. Running over a python on the road made the ride exciting, as did coming up to a dust cloud which hid a large, slow truck that was not showing any rear lights. Ian had a word while praying this morning that are alerted us to pray against disaster and it certainly would have been a disaster if Moses had not slowed down before entering that dust cloud. We could easily have had a bad accident.

I had not only prayed for protection, but packed a first aid kit and extra water in case of accident or being broken down into the middle of nowhere. Fortunately we did not need these :-)

On return back to Kondoa, we learned that there was another dinner being cooked for us!!! A good thing we had not eaten a big one in Mondo. The evening wore on and our farewell event started at 10:30pm… Ian was involved in a prayer engagement from 10pm…

Now we need to pack up and prepare for the next leg. We will leave Kondoa tomorrow morning and head towards Dodoma.

Last day at Mrijo... Helen did a talk on Deliverance (heavily influenced by Derek Prince's 9 steps) and one cute pastor's son was healed of back pain during that session. After lunch, Andrew led a session on prophecy and hearing God. This was a new concept to some people and part of our difficulty here in Mrijo has been that about a third of the congregation have Chigogo as their first language, not Swahili, so there have been some times when that section looked a bit blank or as if they were falling asleep... so the Bishop, whose first language is Chigogo, summarised for them. We had not anticipated that the time would need to be divided between three languages. It really hampers the amount one is able to impart.

Due to a late start we only had one session on the first day. We started with the words of knowledge we had received. All five respondents were healed.

Andrew taught on being filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues. There was good acceptance from the people. The Area Dean reported they were impressed at seeing words of knowledge in action and the healings and some had newly spoken in tongues while others were encouraged in the gift. During this time a woman manifested a demon; Helen, Ian and the Bishop took her aside. We led her in forgiveness and cut the spiritual oppression and she came free.

Before we left for the Parish we had prayed about the strong spiritual influences there are noted: witchcraft, a shackle, poverty, division. When we shared these with the leaders they said there was an attempt to reclaim the church and people to darkness and there was passive resistance to the pastor’s decisions. We decided to claim afresh the Parish property for the kingdom of God. The local pastor led us around the boundary of the church land claiming God’s protection and angelic protection.

Day two 21/6/16Ian taught on "Forgiveness and Condemnation" and then lead them in corporate forgiving and dealt with condemnation. After lunch Ian taught on healing. We used words of knowledge we had received at the start of the day and prayed for the woman with lumbar pain as a demonstration. She was healed. Then Ian prayed for a woman with Thoracic pain and a headache while Andrew prayed for two woman with eye problems –all were healed.Then we switched to having them pray for each other in pairs. 11 people reported they were healed.

Meanwhile Helen and the Bishop had a lengthy session in which a child and her mother were set free of demons and sickness. Next day the mother gave testimony that they went home as three new people and could never have imagined such freedom being theirs.

Monday has arrived and today we start out for the villages. Last year's pattern of staying in the village for three days proved very successful in that we were able to teach and train people more effectively than with a "hit and run" one day visit and back to base with the attendant 2 or 3 hour journey each way.

Sunday"s Ordination Service was a marathon 5 1/2 hours long. Let no-one in the Western church ever complain about 1 1/2 hours again! :-) It did not seem too long, because there were so many interesting things going on - a family of about 15 people came to give thanks for the mother's safe return to them after a stomach operation; a baptism of a woman from the other major faith; the ordination of 12 men; the presentation of gifts to each one, accompanied by song and dance from each of their parishes; a huge dance and song celebration; a communion celebration for about 300 people or more.

Today we go to the deanery of Itolwa and in three day's time we go to Chemba for 4 days, then we go to Dodoma and there will be 2 confirmation services one one day, 1 the next and 2 the final day before we fly home.

So just in case we get no internet or electricity before we get to Dodoma, pray for us and God bless you!

Today started with a blue. I was typing away while the jug boiled. Unfortunately, it did not have an off switch and boiled dry, so I have another challenge - where does one buy a new kettle? Probably not available in Kondoa. Maybe I can get one in Dodoma and send it back to Kondoa. Now I shall have to put on one pot to boil water for a cuppa as well as the large aluminum dish full of water to heat for a wash. The water heater in this house has not worked all the four years we have been coming here - however, it is not much loss in regards to the shower, as one almost has to run around in it to get wet. These considerations are not big in the grand scheme of things, but I want to give you a flavour of life here. Most houses would not even have a shower.

Today, clergy from all around the Diocese have been invited to attend the service. Accommodating them and serving food to them has complex challenges of thing like, "Are there enough pots to cook food in time for lunch?" I think one of the reasons that our dinner is not usually available until 7:30 or 8pm is that our hosts want to give us the best and when the three charcoal cooking fires have cooked the first three dishes and they are brought to the table, the next lot of rice, for example, to be cooked needs water boiled, then the large amount of rice takes a fair while to cook. Therefore, plenty of time for fellowship as we wait for it :-)

I (Helen) am looking forward to the Ordination service very much. The colours, the rousing singing, the joy, the celebration will be wonderful. Today I will try to upload a photo onto here. THis time, we have not taken so many as the sights are more familiar and we have been focussing on the people and events more than taking photos.

Last formal day of the Retreat today! Tomorrow, I have a chance to talk to the ordinands wives. Quite a privilege. I wondered what to say, but Andrew said that they would probably have so many questions that not much prep would be required. I (Helen) have been helping Peter and Christine get ready for the Sunday Ordination service. The problems associated with getting clothes sewn in a third world country emphasise the fact that almost everything is harder here – just to get something sewn on time and sewn so that it fits is hard – and getting something “off the peg” is out of the question.However, it means that I had some fun sewing some slight alterations to Christine’s outfit. On theme of “developing world”, the roads here, even in the good suburb in which we are staying, are full of lumps and hollows. Last night, I fell while walking along the road, because even in the moonlit darkness, the lights of an approaching car were so blinding that momentarily, as it approached, I could not see and took an unguarded step. Ooops! Over went the ankle and down I went. By the grace of God, it was not when the car was close by or who knows whether I would have survived. I picked myself up and there was no lasting damage. Next time, I will wear some shoes with a bit of grip.Later… I could not post this blog because when we came to it, the internet was so slow in opening that we could have been here forever just waiting for it to open, let alone uploading anything.So it is back to writing at 6am on Sunday morning…On Saturday, we were guests of honour at the “swearing in” or “declaration of vows”, which the ordinands made. One man was so moved that he was shaking as he made his vows to the Bishop. We were humbled to receive thanks from the Bishop for our part in preparing the ordinands over the past few days. I needn’t have gotten stressed over my lack of preparation before coming to Kondoa, because the simple things I have been able to write before each session seem to have been well-received and actually better than something I pored over for hours. I have been very dependent on the Lord to inspire me with what they needed to hear.Ian’s part has been similar in that before we came, we expected that he would be leading an evangelist’s conference running in parallel to the ordinands’ retreat – but that did not eventuate. So he did some of my slots and I was very pleased, as he did so much better a job than I would have.

From Wednesday to Saturday, we are leading the retreat for those to be ordained on Sunday. Andrew is teaching a series on Intimacy with God, while Helen and Ian are leading meditations to follow each session. We are also available to pray with any of the candidates and/or their wives.They are a great group of dedicated workers and a pleasure to lead through this retreat.

2 1/2 hours of dusty, bumpy road later, we are in Kondoa. We travelled in the Bishop's new Land Cruiser, which meant we were not constantly breathing in dust. It also has air-conditioning, but that was not put on because it is not hot enough at present. Only about 25 degrees! also, becasue of having a reliable car, there was not the hurry of "Get to Kondoa before dark. If you break down in the forest on the way, there are wild animals who are dangerous." Still, of course, there was the possibility of a puncture which could have the same effect.

We passed many new bridges being built and mile upon mile of roadworks. The Bishop optimistically said "By the time you get here next year, it might be finished." But I can't see that happening, although there is tremendous earth-moving activity and concrete bridge support creation.

The Bishop was nodding off even though it was a short-ish journey and late afternoon. HE has been visiting quite a few remote villages recently. The most exciting news was that at Tarkwa, a village we visited last year, the church has grown from 30 to 140 in the 8 months since we were there. He told us how excited they are following all the healings which took place and how they are doing their own prayer for healing and the Lord is bringing in many people. I am not sure if we at St Stephen's could cope with that amount of growth! He mentioned the woman who had been delivered of several demons. She is still radiant, he says and was telling him how she does not fall over any more as she used to. The (formerly) blind man whom Ian prayed for is still able to see. Praise God!

Well, I nearly lost this post somehow, so I will publish it before it disappears again!

What a welcome we received! In our previous visits, we have travelled via Arusha and found it very helpful to stay with friends on a mission complex, but this time we went via Dar Es Salaam. Staying in the centre of town, there was a pair of large speakers on top of a mosque nearby, and because it is the month of Ramadan, the prayers went on late in the evening as well as starting briefly at 4am.

The early morning found us back at the airport boarding a Cessna Grand Caravan, flying 1 1/2 hours to Dodoma. It was fun being in a small aircraft, close enough to the ground to be able to see interesting land features - harsh mountains, tiny settlements with the odd bright blue roof scattered amongst the bare iron sheets, little rolling hills dotted with houses, a tortuously winding river sparking in contrast to the dull green lowlands. All accompanied by the excitement of, "Who will be there to meet us in Dodoma?"

So what a lovely surprise when it was Bishop Given, plus Christine and Peter Akester opening their arms wide at the arrival entrance of the capital's areodrome. We felt like foreign dignitaries approaching a welcoming party :-)

On the way back to the Bishop's house, we lingered in Dodoma central, buying Bibles as presents for the villages we would soon visit. Then on to greet Lilian (Mama Bishop) and give her the well-travelled, cast-iron mincer I had brought for her. A mincer in this part of the world means you don't need a kitchen wizz, or electricity, just a sturdy table to clamp it to. When I wrote to her three months ago to say I had been given one for her, she had forgotten that she had mentioned the need of one when we were there back in September. She wrote back, "Praise God! I was just at the market in Dodoma yesterday and could not find one to buy."

While there, I prayed for her niece, who is at home from school because of having caught typhoid. She is the third child to catch it in that household recently. Children often don't see the need or forget such tiresome things as always brushing their teeth with boiled water. What comes out of the tap is so much easier when you are rushing to get to school on time.

Well, I think I will post this while we still have electricity and internet access :-)